Colorado 76 Early Rifle 2022

I know a guy who hunted with his bow there for 22 days straight and had a heck of a time getting it done. He is a pretty good elk hunter too. He ended up taking a smaller bull on one of his last days in the unit. So its for sure not a super easy slam dunk hunt.

He was hunting with a bow. He said if he would have had a rifle it would have been over very fast....lol
 
Been cow hunting there multiple times and have had multiple family members kill multiple respectable bulls as well
 
Aside from the freezing rain, fog, snow and too many 4 wheelers on the clear days it was fun. Saw plenty of elk on the days without fog and rain, easy chance on a 280-300 ish bull (had a bigger one in my bottom pasture when I got home), nothing that was worth shooting as I was looking for another 350 plus. Learned how to make fires with wet wood and mist, and plenty of jet boil meals. A really pretty area, but you need a good set of legs to make it work. I think a bow hunt would be very tough especially after the muzzle loading season got them moving out of the basins they had been using all summer that we had scouted.
 
Commutair said:
Guys I’m thinking of applying for this unit this year. 2023. Archery. If you have any info it would be great. I should have enough points to draw, 9 if point creep doesn’t get me 😔 anyhow let me know if your willing to share. Thanks guys….
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Wish you the best on the draw.
Absolutley amazing experience to hunt 76.
PM me if you draw.
 
Durango Mike said:
Spent the last 2 days cruising CO 76 scouting with my young friend in his Polaris Razor that is one way to get a good feel of terrain and where we might stage our horses if we decide to use them. We found several moose so I know where I will ever go if I draw a tag, some very "moosy" spots. Glassed one nice elk bull in a saddle that might be hunt-able. We have been thinking that early rifle will have bulls moving away from the areas that are more archery friendly and still might be at the tail end of the rut to help locate them. I can report there has been quite a bit of rain so everything very green and ample water everywhere in spite of SW drought conditions. If the monsoon continues the elk will have plenty of feed in the deep bowls well away from the numerous ATV roads that are laced throughout the GMU. We stayed right on the Rio Grande and the river was up almost 1 foot overnight, started raining even harder when we left yesterday. Big area with lots of rugged terrain, we are planning on a few more scouting trips in August and will keep adding any insights for folks with earlier/later tags. Since this is a 20 point tag I was curious if anyone had an idea where the number of tags for early rifle issued can be found? Given the season is wedged between archery and first rifle probably will see some folks scouting and a few pulling out of archery camps.
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Where did you access 76 from ? From South Fork headed to Creed maybe ?
 
Durango Mike said:
Came through Creede, cut in about 8 miles north on county road, pretty easy access to good camp locations.
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Thank you very much Mike !!! Best of Luck on your hunt and hope you kill a new world record.

Be careful out there. Read about that Elk hunter that was shot near Durango last fall.

Unfortunately was asked to go look for a friends brother who was muzzle load hunting white tails from a tree stand. His brother had seen me and friend hauling a white buck out a couple days earlier near where his brothers stand was. Ask I could find his stand in the dark.

As he went to the sheriffs department to organize a search party. I headed straight to the blind that was on a 1 square mile island in the middle of the Arkansas river. Didn’t have a flash light. trekked in on a 1/2 mile rock diek. (Brought the buck out by boat two days before. )

There was pretty good moon light so I was able to see his stand in top of a cotton wood tree and that he wasn’t in it. But saw his 4Wheeler hid in the brush at the bottom of it.

About that same time saw lights from the search party making there way onto the island. One 4Wheeler way ahead of the rest. It was the brother. When I walked to the bottom of the tree I found the hunter laying on his side. Wasn’t just couple of minutes until his brother showed up. Had no choice but flag him down and he immediately saw his brothers 4 Wheeler parked at the bottom of the tree. As he shinned his lights he saw his brother laying there. You see he was shot square in the left cheek just below his eye. Was really a bad deal. Hope to never find another hunter like that ever again.
 
Wow, that's a tough deal. I found a hunter that had been shot while whitetail hunting here in PA. It was a complete stranger and that was very traumatic. I couldn't imagine what your friend went through finding his brother like that.
 
What a cool unit! That bull is an absolute stud! Gah that would be a dream to hunt 76. Seems like some awesome country.
 
elkduds said:
Welcome to HT. Enjoy this brief orientation video regarding discussing specific hunting units in open forums.
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I certainly don't see a problem discussing specific hunting units in this forum. General information provided to a fellow hunter is what I thought was the intent of this forum. The hunting units in CO are large areas, most with multiple drainages and mountains. General information should not identify one's secret honey hole, but provide other HT'ers guidance or recommendations from previous experience on a unit. It doesn’t hurt to help someone out if it will aid them in deciding what unit to put in for the draw or after the drawing. I believe there's plenty of space and plenty of elk out there every hunter to experience and enjoy.
 
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Westelker - W. Colorado said:
I certainly don't see a problem discussing specific hunting units in this forum. General information provided to a fellow hunter is what I thought was the intent of this forum. The hunting units in CO are large areas, most with multiple drainages and mountains. General information should not identify one's secret honey hole, but provide other HT'ers guidance or recommendations from previous experience on a unit. It doesn’t hurt to help someone out if it will aid them in deciding what unit to put in for the draw or after the drawing. I believe there's plenty of space and plenty of elk out there every hunter to experience and enjoy.
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I think the problem is really about sharing information with people who joined two days ago, get to their limit of 10posts by scrolling through old posts and posting insightful things like "great story" or "antelope are fast", or something, then start a thread asking for info. Then when they get info they disappear. A lot of people on HT are sensitive souls.
 
SAJ-99 said:
I think the problem is really about sharing information with people who joined two days ago, get to their limit of 10posts by scrolling through old posts and posting insightful things like "great story" or "antelope are fast", or something, then start a thread asking for info. Then when they get info they disappear. A lot of people on HT are sensitive souls.
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You had me at "antelope are fast." Hahaha.

Sometimes I look over a new member's posts, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that hahaha.
 
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